Jack Ciattarelli is a fighter. He knows New Jersey is solid blue but he’s giving it all he’s got. That shows guts and character. And there is precedent. In 1993 Christie Todd Whitman upset a Democrat incumbent in New Jersey and became governor one year before the Republicans captured the US House and Senate in the Gingrich Revolution.

Ciattarelli: What would you say to a governor who told you, “If you don’t like paying high taxes, you should pick up your family and your small business and leave the state?” Well, if you live in New Jersey, that’s exactly what Gov. Phil Murphy suggested you do. He told the highest-taxed people in America to deal with it or get out.

No governor from New Jersey – one who truly understood our residents – would ever say that. Murphy is tone deaf and out of touch. He’s not one of us. He’s not New Jersey. He’s an extreme liberal transplant from Massachusetts. My story is a New Jersey story. It’s where my grandparents immigrated from Italy 100 years ago. It’s where I was born and raised. It’s where I went to school. Where I became a CPA. It’s where my wife Melinda and I raised our four children. It’s where I started two successful Main Street businesses and created jobs and opportunities for fellow New Jerseyans (while Murphy was busy making rich people richer on Wall Street).

Whatever Murphy learned on Wall Street has not helped him in managing our state’s economy. New Jersey is ranked the worst state in the country in which to do business. And one out of three small businesses has shut their doors forever because of Murphy’s oppressive regulations during the pandemic.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now Murphy is standing shoulder to shoulder with President Joe Biden’s failed economic agenda. Rising gas prices, inflation, supply chain issues and, adding insult to injury, a refusal to restore our SALT deduction despite promises that he would.

I am running for governor to fix our broken state. I know that taxes ARE an issue. But in  New Jersey, we don’t run from problems, we solve them. In fact, I have a plan to lower taxes for everyone and reduce the size and cost of our bloated government.

Under Murphy, murders and gun violence are up 40%, while our police are constantly disrespected and disarmed by his anti-law enforcement agenda. When questioned on it, the governor resorts to lies, telling police officers, firefighters and even teachers that I am going to take their pensions.

As governor, I will stand with our police and get tough on crime to make our communities safer and more secure. I will also keep whole the pay, health benefits and pensions of police, fire and teachers…Murphy proved he was the most extreme politician ever to serve as our governor when he said he wanted to make New Jersey “the California of the East Coast.”